Innovation in financial services continues to move at a rapid pace. The significant increase in the number of fintech companies in recent years has highlighted a burgeoning market with significant economic potential, and a commercial need to create efficiencies and modernize the provision of financial products and services. Federal and state financial services regulators remain … Continue Reading

New York has enacted the Digital Currency Study Bill, which will establish a digital currency task force and provide the governor and the state legislature information “on the effects of the widespread use of cryptocurrencies and other forms of digital currencies and their ancillary systems in the state.” The task force will conduct an extensive … Continue Reading

FinTech and blockchain technologies are rapidly developing. With the emergence of so many new ideas and technologies comes the need for action, to protect both current and future innovations. Given the pace at which technology continues to disrupt the industry, securing IP assets—especially patents—should be a primary consideration for companies in this space. As the … Continue Reading

The CFTC’s LabCFTC recently released “A Primer on Smart Contracts” as part of LabCFTC’s initiative to engage with stakeholders on FinTech topics. The primer explains smart contracts, and explores their potential benefits — with a particular focus on the financial sector — and challenges. The CFTC has an interest in smart contracts because, as the … Continue Reading

Blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionise many industries; it has been said that “blockchain will do to the financial system what the internet did to media”. Its most famous use is its role as the architecture of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, however it has many other potential uses in the financial sector, for instance in … Continue Reading

On July 16, 2018, the Financial Stability Board (“FSB”) issued a report to the G20 Ministers of Finance and Central Bank Governors summarizing the work that the FSB and other international standard-setting bodies have undertaken regarding crypto-assets. The FSB notably reported that it has developed a framework for monitoring financial stability risks related to crypto-assets, … Continue Reading

This past week has been an especially active one for the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). On Monday, in a speech to the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA), CFTC Chairman Giancarlo announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to increase cooperation between state securities regulators and the CFTC — particularly with respect to prosecuting … Continue Reading

California has taken a conservative step on the path to greater regulation of blockchain technology or legal recognition of blockchain-secured data. On May 18, an amended bill was referred to the State Assembly Appropriations Committee for review that would provide for the establishment of a blockchain working group to evaluate “the potential uses, risks, and … Continue Reading

On March 22, 2018, the Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) issued a report on the regulation of financial technology (“fintech”) in response to a request from Congress for more information on “fintech activities.” The report concludes that agencies that regulate fintech firms should coordinate with each other more closely, develop offices of innovation (for agencies that … Continue Reading

When bitcoin entered the public’s eye for the first time in 2013, it was touted as one of the greatest inventions for the unbanked in Africa. The World Bank estimates that of the 2 billion people without access to the modern financial system, a third live in Sub-Saharan Africa. In recent months, bitcoin and cryptocurrency … Continue Reading

Blockchain is a powerful innovation that is poised to bring substantial positive change to the financial services industry as well as many other industries. Despite such promise, blockchain, like any emerging financial services technology, must be evaluated from the perspective of cybersecurity risk – both to an individual financial institution and to the broader and … Continue Reading

Yesterday, the Federal Communications Commission sent a letter to an individual in Brooklyn, New York, alleging that a device in the individual’s residence that is being used to mine Bitcoin is generating spurious radiofrequency emissions, causing interference to a portion of T-Mobile’s mobile telephone and broadband network. The letter states that on November 30, 2017, … Continue Reading

Data is of particular importance to businesses in the financial sector. This blog post provides a high level overview of how United States copyright law treats data. U.S. copyright protection for raw, unstructured data is generally regarded as thin or unavailable. The reason for this is that such raw data may not satisfy the creativity … Continue Reading

On August 3, 2017, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (“ISDA”) and Linklaters LLP released a whitepaper titled “Smart Contracts and Distributed Ledger – A Legal Perspective.” The whitepaper sets out to define the terms “smart contract” and “distributed ledger,” to analyze their applications to the derivatives industry, and to highlight potential legal issues raised … Continue Reading

On July 25, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) issued a Report of Investigation (“Report”) finding that the digital tokens offered and sold by the virtual, unincorporated organization known as “The DAO” were securities subject to the federal securities laws. The DAO sold DAO tokens in exchange for the digital currency Ether used on … Continue Reading

On July 6, 2017, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) announced that it had granted LedgerX registration as a swap execution facility (“SEF”). LedgerX is a platform that will trade and clear options on bitcoin. LedgerX has also applied to become a derivatives clearing organization. If approved, LedgerX “would be the first federally regulated bitcoin … Continue Reading

The Federal Reserve Board released a staff research paper on Monday, December 5, 2016, addressing the potential use of distributed ledger technology (DLT) in payments, clearing, and settlement (PCS) processes. A distributed ledger is a type of database in which identical copies of information are distributed and maintained among multiple parties or multiple nodes in … Continue Reading

At the inaugural Financial Technology Forum hosted by the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) November 14, 2016, SEC Chairwoman Mary Jo White and Commissioner Michael Piwowar gave remarks addressing the future of fintech regulation and the role of the SEC in such regulation. Both Chairwoman White and Commissioner Piwowar emphasized the potential benefits and … Continue Reading

Financial services companies, software developers and governments alike are exploring opportunities to automate a wide range of legacy processes using smart contracts and blockchain technology. What are smart contracts? Smart contracts are “computable” legal contracts that execute automatically (without verification by a third party) when a set of pre-programmed conditions are satisfied. Unlike traditional legal … Continue Reading

About the Covington Financial Services Group

Recognized as a preeminent practice by Chambers, Legal 500, Best Lawyers in America, and other publications, Covington’s financial institutions practice is widely recognized as one of the leading practices in the United States. For more than 50 years, Covington has advised financial services firms on all types of regulatory, enforcement, transactional, and consumer protection matters. Read More